Soviet Log 35
The Encringement First thing, at what seemed verrrrrry earrrrrly in the morning to some of us, (#lookinggoodbutfeelingshitty), we saddled up in the freshly upgraded Tsyplenok Vagon, and prepared for our stealth assault on the nearest Radar Tower. The Hot Shot Girls joined us, Fran, Betty, and Greta all looking as much the worse for wear as Katya, (I mean, they all looked flawless, but you could tell they were hung-over). The ride to the drop zone was only a couple of hours, but it seemed longer since we spent much of the journey trying to decide what our actual goal in assaulting the tower was. Eventually, we hand-waved the idea that we would 'infiltrate' their sensors to hide the Josie from Radar but it's not clear who actually believed that was viable. Katya was too hungover to really care. With fingers crossed we had to hope that Eva's work on the shuttle's stealth systems was up to the challenge of flying straight into the Nazi-Tech powered Radar Array, but, keeping low, we seemed to make it undetected to just the other side of a (relatively) low ridge from the Tower. Go Heat-Sink/Cloaking-Field/Stealth-Module/Anti-Radar-Coating FTW! At this point we had bit of a debate about our strategic approach for our infiltration of the Tower; the Hot-Shots wanted to disembark on this side of the ridge and proceed on foot, but in our group Climbing and Aracnimotion were inadequately represented for any certainty of getting the squad up and down the, (much steeper looking from the ground), cliffs. In the end we decided on a two-pronged approach. Team Hot-Shot stepped out at the hidden LZ and hoofed it in, while the rest of us, still trusting in the super-stealthmobile, gave them a head start, then flew up and over the ridge, directly at the giant Dish! Our luck must've held, (or Katya's critical Espial might have helped), as, approaching the station the 4 Snipers patrolling the perimeter showed no indication of alarm. Cyta cast her auxiliary stealth Spell assortment on us, then we activated the Rock Heart Items Mei-Linn had made for us and leapt from the Shuttle. What was supposed to be a well choreographed simultaneous landing went a bit sideways however; Rocquette managed a perfect 3-point landing on the roof of the building, (one leg out to the side, one hand down on three fingers, the other arm outstretched), but the wind currents buffeting around the giant Radar Dish proved problematic for Mei and Katya (especially with her minus three for partying so hard). Mei hit her target but fell prone. Katya missed her intended target by quite a bit and also landed prone, (legs out to the side, with one hand raised slightly). Luckily, both were still stealthy enough to remain undetected. Eva meanwhile used her Cyber Micro-Jets to hover at the junction box half way up the Tower and disabled the station's long range radio, (hopefully no one was on it!). All of the Stealth magics must've paid off, as apparently none of this alerted any of the oblivious guards. We used our surprise action to stand-up or power up (i.e. the "Roq Special") and then launched into initiative still undetected. After a bit of a delay while everybody activated various Force Skins, Combat Endorphins, and Squad Commands, we burst forth out of the snow for the Simultaneous Surprise Sneak Attack! Rocquette went first, rising up onto the parapet of the building in the Crane Pose, then combo Leap/Enhanced Motivator/Micro-Jet Bursted across the 11 hex gap to where the closest Sniper stood atop a rock outcropping wondering why he had rolled Initiative. Unleashing her newly upgraded Concussion Snap-Kick, she Armor-Pierced the Spetsnaz trooper, nailing him for PD2 Force7 Bleed2. Not that any of the Riders mattered, as, without his Armor or his Force Skin, the strike obliterated the Sniper and sent his corpse rag-dolling down the slope on the opposite side from the building. Meanwhile, Katya surfaced behind her target. This guy was not only not paying attention, he was actively leaning over the cliff, looking at something below! Katya also had a recently upgraded Martial Arts attack to show off, and used a Called-Shot Foot-Sweep to knock him spiraling down into the canyon. Following him down with her gaze Kat observed that it was a mother bird, (a falcon?), feeding her baby that had so attracted his attention (#lookingdownmakesmefeelsick). At the same time, Mei-Linn magically summoned a Wrecking Ball behind the other guard standing by the top of the cliff. It squashed him flat like paper, then with its momentum as it rolled off of the cliff launched him out into the abyss, where he fluttered gently away in the mountain breeze. Lastultaneously, Eva zoomed across the roof of the building and down behind the final Sniper. Unfurling her Scarf/Whip (Quick Draw Scarf/Whip style?), she lassoed his legs and sent him tumbling down the rocky outcropping he was standing on, which knocked him Prone in front of the Hot-Shots, who were just entering the Area of Operations. Although her failure to kill her guy cost the group our Achievement for the 4-Way Simultaneous One-Hit-Kill Surprise Attack, no one was bitter, and she did manage to take him down with her next attack. With the Snipers taken care of in (almost) flawless fashion, we moved towards the only door to the armored structure. Roquette was there first with her Exo-Motivatedness and her started closestness, but Katya and Mei-Linn were way behind, having taken out the guards at the rear of the structure. Undeterred, Roq proceeded to pull out her combat-ready toolkit and had the necessary items ready to go as Eva ran up. Eva made short work of drilling out the lock, then, (while Rocquette packed up her toolkit), launched Boris the Spider in through the hole, (many obscene references were made as it crawled out from inside of her). What Borris' remote sensors indicated was an antechamber with 4 Spetsnaz Soldiers taking off their cold weather gear in front of a wide open security door! Hurriedly withdrawing him, Eva recalled the Spider-Probe and drew her Pistol while Roq put away her tools and the hot shots caught up. With half the party in position Roq flung the door open and Eva filled the vestibule with showers of electricity taking out all 4 defenders in a single area effect shot. As Mei and Kat doggedly jogged around the side of the building, Roq leapt past the blackened corpses of the Force-Skinless guards into an airlock-like chamber with another security door, (closed), on the other side of it. The controls for both doors could be accessed from within however, so Rocquette, (after some extensive pondering), was able to pop the inside door open just as Kat and the Hot-Shots caught up. Of course the guards on the other side of the door all had their Force Skins up and their actions triggered, catching those in the front in a withering hail of automatic weapons fire. Fortunately Roq managed to Defend against multiple shots, then in a daring and heroic fashion charged down the hall way into the midst of the enemy soldiers! Eva, caught some what flat footed (so many 10 initiatives) dove for cover and sent out Boris to gain a better tactical overview. Kat moved in too, Kat and Rocquette catching one of the guards between them and "Double Teaming" him in a super not good way, which resulted in him exploding in a fountain of blood (#sodehydrated, #isbloodanelectrolyte). Mei-Linn meanwhile, had gotten tired of trying to run all the way around the building, and had paused to DisinCrackinate herself a nice new hole in the wall. Casting Vision Globe, she flanked around behind the defenders and Narcolepsied one of them. Eva peppered the other two gaurds with her double tap, leaving them naked bleeding and in fear for their lives. As the last two remaining guards backed away down the hall, Rocquette demanded that they surrender. And drop their weapons. And get naked-er. Not surprisingly, they complied. As the Hot-Shot's bondage expert tied up the prisoners, our squad started a Salvage-Off, (except for Rocquette, who got distracted by the guards' suffering). Kat found a sweet magic cutlass, and there was a bunch of Salvage. After interrogating the guards and taking a quick look at the equipment, we determined that; * New Towers had been built which we updated on our map * The Tower's range had been upgraded to 400 miles * The Codes wouldn't change until the end of the Month * At month's end new books and supplies would be delivered but nobody was likely to visit until then * The Guards were supposed to check in by radio every 8 hours so we likely had until tomorrow before they were reported missing We decided that the best course of action was to take the Code-Books and spend one Four Hour Block at the captured base to work on a couple of projects. Rocquette and Sailor June spent the time researching the wavelengths that the Nazi Radar worked on in the hopes that we would later be able to develop some kind of countermeasure for it, and everybody else worked on formulating a large amount of explosives and deploying them as required to set off a landslide that would drop the entire facility into the valley far below. Once everything was in place - Katya's critical Demolitions success tying it all together - we loaded all of the salvage and weapons we could onto the shuttle and took off, (pressing the "don't even look back at that explosion" button on our way out of the valley). Alternate version: Scene opens with viewpoint from high above the facility. The shuttle lifts off and zooms past. Moments later, the facility erupts in a multiple explosions and slides off the side of the mountain. #xcomandcriticaldemolitionsFTW By the end of the next Block we made it back to the Joltin' Josie, and reported our success. The news of the Radar's increased range was of great concern to the Captain and crew, and it was decided that our plan on how to get to Moscow would need to be revised. Kat and the other sleep deprived went to bed early (#lovenest, #harem). Rocquette and the science team went to work interpreting the data on the radar wavelengths. By the end of the day they managed to prototype an Emitter that they hoped would help to mask the giant plane, and the navigators determined that with the radar tower removed we could punch through the Ural radar grid and with 4 days of travel towards our goal we will be within a 4hr block of Moscow just outside of their main defensive perimeter. We all started making plans as to how most efficiently put the time to best use... - Insert Shot of Mother Falcon pecking Spetsnaz Sniper's face off of a jagged rock here - - Fade to White - Rewards 11 Generic Points 1 Combat Rocquette 4 Generic Points 1 Benny Katya 1 Benny Eva 1 Benny Category:Soviet